Substitutes include chewing gum, sweets, peppermints, herbal cigarettes and pills. DO NOT USE ANY OF THEM. They make it harder, not easier. If you do get a pang and use a substitute, it will prolong the pang and make it harder. What you are really saying is 'I need to smoke or fill the void,' It will be like giving in to a hijacker or the tantrums of a child. It will just keep the pangs coming and prolong the torture. In any event the substitutes will not relieve the pangs. Your craving is for
nicotine, not food. All it will do is keep you thinking about smoking. Remember these points:
1 There is no substitute for nicotine.
2 You do not need nicotine. It is not food; it is poison. When the pangs come remind yourself that it
is smokers who suffer withdrawal pangs, not non-smokers. See them as another evil of the drug.
See them as the death of a monster.
3 Remember: cigarettes create the void; they do not fill it. The quicker you teach your brain that you
do not need to smoke, or do anything else in its place, the sooner you will be free.
In particular avoid any product that contains nicotine, whether it be gum, patch, nasal spray or the
latest gimmick, the inhalator which is similar to a plastic cigarette. It is true that a small proportion of
smokers who attempt to quit using nicotine substitutes do succeed and attribute their success to such
use. However they quit in spite of their use and not because of it. It is unfortunate that many doctors
still recommend nicotine replacement therapy (NRT),
This is not surprising because, if you don't fully understand the nicotine trap, NRT sounds very
logical. It is based on the belief that when you attempt to quit smoking, you have two powerful
enemies to defeat:
1 To break the habit.
2 To survive the terrible physical nicotine withdrawal pains.
If you have two powerful enemies to defeat it is sensible not to fight them simultaneously but one
at a time. So the NRT theory is that you first stop smoking but continue to take a nicotine
replacement. Then, once you have broken the habit, you gradually reduce the supply of nicotine,
thus tackling each enemy separately.
It sounds logical, but it is based on the wrong facts. Smoking is not habit but nicotine addiction
and the actual physical pain from nicotine withdrawal is almost imperceptible. What you are trying
to achieve when you quit smoking is to kill both the little nicotine monster in your body and the big
monster inside your brain as quickly as possible. All NRT does is to prolong the life of the little
monster which in turn will prolong the life of the big monster.
Remember EASYWAY makes it easy to quit immediately. You can kill the big monster
(brainwashing) before you extinguish your final cigarette. The little monster will soon be dead and
even while it is dying, will be no more of a problem than it was when you were a smoker.
Just think, how can you possibly cure an addict of addiction to a drug by recommending the same
drug? One eminent and highly respected doctor has actually stated on national television that some
smokers are so dependent on nicotine that if they did quit they would have to take a nicotine
substitute for life. How can a doctor get so confused as to believe that the human body is not just
dependent upon food, water and oxygen, but on a powerful poison?
We often have smokers attend our clinics who have quit smoking but are hooked on nicotine gum.
Others are hooked on the gum and are still smoking. Do not be fooled by the fact that the gum tastes
awful - so did the first cigarette.
All substitutes have exactly the same effect as nicotine chewing gum, I'm now talking about this
business of 'I can't have a cigarette, so I'll have ordinary chewing gum, or sweets, or peppermints to
help fill the void.' Although the empty feeling of wanting a cigarette is indistinguishable from hunger
for food, one will not satisfy the other. In fact, if anything is designed to make you want a cigarette,
it's stuffing yourself with chewing gum or peppermints.
But the chief evil of substitutes is that they prolong the real problem, which is the brainwashing.
Do you need a substitute for 'flu when it's over? Of course you don't. By saying 'I need a substitute
for smoking' what you are really saying is 'I am making a sacrifice/ The depression associated with
the Willpower Method is caused by the fact that the smoker believes he is making a. sacrifice. All
you will be doing is to substitute one problem for another. There is no pleasure in stuffing yourself
with sweets. You will just get fat and miserable, and in no time at all you'll be back on the weed.
Casual smokers find it difficult to dismiss the belief that they are being deprived of their little
reward: the cigarette during the canteen break of office or factory workers who aren't allowed to
smoke while working, or of teachers in the staff room between lessons, or the quickie by doctors
between patients. Some say: 'I wouldn't even take the break if I didn't smoke.' That proves the point,
often the break is taken, not because the smoker needs it or even wants it, but because the smoker
desperately needs to scratch the itch. Remember, those cigarettes never were genuine rewards. They
were equivalent to wearing tight shoes to get the pleasure of taking them off. So if you feel that you
must have a little reward, let that be your substitute; while you are working, wear a pair of shoes a
size too small for you, don't allow yourself to remove them until you have your break, then experience
that wonderful moment of relaxation and satisfaction when you do remove them. Perhaps you feel
that would be rather stupid. You are absolutely right. It's hard to visualize while you are still in the
trap, but that is what smokers do. It's also hard to visualize that soon you won't need that little
'reward', and you'll regard your friends who are still in the trap with genuine pity and wonder why
they cannot see the point.
However, if you go on kidding yourself that the cigarette was a genuine reward or that you need a
substitute to take its place, you will feel deprived and miserable, and the chances are that you'll end
up smoking again. If you need a genuine break, as housewives, teachers, doctors and other workers do,
you'll soon be enjoying that break even more because you won't have to choke yourself.
Remember, you don't need a substitute. Those pangs are a craving for poison and will soon be gone.
Let that be your prop for the next few days. Enjoy ridding your body of poison and your mind of
slavery and dependence.
If, because your appetite is better, you eat more at main meals and put on a couple of pounds during
the next few days, don't worry about it. When you experience the 'moment of revelation' that I
describe later, you will have confidence, and you'll find that any problem you have that is capable of
being solved by positive thinking you will be able to solve, including eating habits. But what you
mustn't do is to start picking between meals. If you do, you will get fat and miserable and you will
never know when you've kicked the weed. You'll just be moving the problem instead of getting rid of
it.